It is a fact that Maui beaches are rated among the best in the world, and water sports are unsurpassed. Kaanapali Beach is one of our favourite beaches, and here you can either walk for miles on the sand, or take a leisurely stroll along a pathway, which extends from the Hyatt, through Whaler's Village and ends up at the Sheraton Hotel. Black Rock, a popular snorkeling spot with a nice sandy beach is directly in front of the Sheraton. If you cut through the Sheraton, the walkway continues and goes to Kahekili Beach Park (formerly called airport beach). There is good reef just to the right, in front of the Maui Westin Resort. Here we have seen green sea turtles, lots of colourful fish, octopus and moray eels. The nice thing about this beach, is that because it is a state park it has washrooms, showers, picnic tables, BBQ pits and a large parking lot.
A couple of other West Maui beaches worthy of note, are Kapalua (see photo), and Napili, both great family beaches and snorkeling spots. Napili is terrific for boogie boarding, and our kids still have great memories of the fun they had playing in the waves.
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| Charley Young Beach - Kihei |
Kihei, on the south side of the island, also boasts some outstanding beaches. As you make your way south along South Kihei road, you will come to attractive Charley Young Beach, just across from the Maui Vista.
After that you will come to the Kama'ole Beaches I, II and III. These beaches are very family friendly, with life guards, showers, and lovely golden sand.
The last and perhaps nicest Kihei beach just before turning up to Wailea is Keawakapu. Here you will find a wide expanse of beautiful sand both on the beach and in the water, making it perfect for swimming, walking or building sand castles.
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| Wailea Beach Walk |
A beautiful beachwalk, similar to the one in Kaanapali starts at Ulua Beach, and goes all the way up to the Fairmont resort. This makes for a wonderful morning or sunset walk and a great place to spot whales. As you make your way along the walkway you will cut through beautiful Wailea beach in front of the Grand Wailea hotel. If you walk in the evening you may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some of the luau entertainment going on at a few of the hotels.
Big Beach in Makena is one of Maui's better known and most popular beaches, with its wide expanse of sand and great conditions for swimming, snorkeling, sun bathing and playing in the waves.
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| Black Sand Beach in Hana |
There are of course many more lesser known Maui beaches which also have merit, including a black sand beach in Hana.
I didn't go into all the snorkeling places in this blog and will save that for another time.
If anyone has a favouite Maui beach to share with us, please do leave a comment on this blog.
If you are coming to Maui and need a place to stay, contact us about our
Maui Garden House.
Some people will go to any lengths to get attention, as we discovered while walking on Waiohuli Beach in Kihei the other day. These creative locals had rigged up a salt water hot tub right on the beach. First they dug a large hole, and lined it with heavy plastic. Then they filled their one-of-a-kind hot tub with water right from the ocean. The pump operated by inverted energy which came from their car battery. For heat they had an old solar panel with a small barbeque underneath. Everything was somehow hooked up to the hose which fed the hot tub and circulated the water.
